Jeff Mitchell: Council down to second-to-last meeting of 2012

Dec. 10, 2012

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Under the Dome

The Salinas City Council tonight — in its second to last meeting of the year — will take up a busy agenda containing several items that taken individually might not excite you but remain interesting nevertheless.

One item deals with the council considering the reconfiguration of former City Manager Artie Fields’ housing assistance loan.

Fields, who will now pay more per month on his $108,000 balance, will get the better part of 20 years to pay the loan off at a what can only be called a sweetheart interest rate — 1.25 percent. (Try finding that rate in the real world marketplace.)

At Councilwoman Kimbley Craig’s urging, the panel will also take up some modifications to a city code that better defines council rules of procedure and guidelines for public decorum.

My first concern about Craig’s item: Why is something that will impact all seven members of this body being voted on by two who will be out of office on Dec. 18? That doesn’t seem right; it doesn’t even seem like good governance.

The public “decorum” part worries me a little, too.

The council does need to keep order during its meetings. There’s no doubt about that. But the First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits governments from restricting the expression of free speech — even if such expression makes things in the Rotunda a little uncomfortable. Such occasional discomfort is the price we all pay for living in a democracy.

Finally, the council will be asked to consider hiring a consultant to study the city’s whopping 44 percent home foreclosure rate.

The consultant will work for free initially.

But following his research, the question of what to do about the problem is likely where the consultant or others will have solutions ready — for a price.

Council should hold off vote on conduct rules until 2013

Part of the above-mentioned “council rules of procedure” contains an error, I think. Section D, No. 5, tells council members if they have a particular problem with a city employee, they should “Discuss directly with the City Manager or City Attorney, as appropriate, any displeasure with a staff member.”

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Here’s my question — what is the city attorney doing dealing with council complaints about staff members?

It’s not her job — it’s the city manager’s.

Now if the issue involves a legal question related to a personnel issue, fine. Otherwise, the city attorney should not be a go-to person if an elected has a beef with a staffer — at least not at first.

No. 5 needs to be rethought.

There's nothing stopping him from walking away

So the city’s new loan deal with former City Manager Artie Fields is all set for council approval tonight.

Fields, who will now pay $188.85 more a month on his loan payments, is essentially being trusted by the City Council to not walk away from his underwater mortgage on his Los Laureles Avenue home.

But if he decided to, there’s nothing legally the city could do about it.

The new loan deal has the city placing “security” on the property in the form of a note and deed of trust.

And to his credit, Fields, who is now city manager in Inglewood, has kept up on his payments while the loan package was being renegotiated.

But if Fields abandons the loan, the only way the city could recover the money would be if the house gains sufficient value on the market.

An email from city Finance Director Matt Pressey acknowleges the city’s vulnerability.

“Right now, there is no protection for the city. What we gain by recording a second trust deed is future protection when the value begins to exceed the first trust deed ... We can make a decision (then) on whether the city wants to pay off the first (or not) if the property is foreclosed on,” Pressey wrote.

Alejo gets married

Alejo, who handily won re-election Nov. 6 to the 30th Assembly District, married Cervantez, a UC Santa Cruz doctoral student, at Mission San Juan Bautista.

The couple are, according to her Facebook page, are on a mini honeymoon this week in Big Sur, an area which became his responsibility during the recent district realignments. Alejo says the couple plans a longer honeymoon on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early next year.

Alejo, who represents all of Salinas, caught the California political world’s attention last May when on the floor of the State Assembly he formally proposed to a surprised Cervantez.

The pair have dated seven years and met each other while working on a school board campaign.

Holiday canned food drive in high gear

The Californian’s Sprint to Holidays canned food drive is in high gear, so please keep on raiding that pantry and bringing those canned and non-perishable food items down to our lobby at 123 W. Alisal St.

Questions? Call Catherine Boswell at 831-754-4101.

Thanks!

• Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas City Hall and local politics. Send tips or story ideas by email to: jemitchell@theCalifornian

.com; or by phone: 831-754-4281. He can be heard live on the air Fridays at 8:10 a.m. on KION 1460-AM and KION 101.1-FM. You also can follow Under the Dome on Twitter at twitter.com/